A new Student Assignment Plan is one of the major initiatives identified in the District's Strategic Plan, Excellence for All. The framework for a new Student Assignment Plan was approved by the Seattle School Board in June 2007.

Overview - Updated 6/2/09

Seattle Public Schools has a five-year strategic plan to achieve academic excellence at every school. An important component of this plan is a new student assignment process that is equitable, predictable, and easy for families to understand—as well as one that is feasible for the District to implement and maintain.

The School Board adopted a framework to guide the development of a new student assignment plan that considered factors such as equitable access to programs and services, offer opportunities for school choice, foster diversity, support stronger family engagement with schools, be easy to understand, provide predictability and continuity for families, and be feasible and cost effective to implement and to sustain over time.

Over the past year, we have worked with the community to determine how to best meet these goals. Some can be achieved through the design of a new student assignment plan; others can be met through decisions about academic programs.

Initial recommendations regarding student assignment and academic programs were submitted to the School Board in March. Since then, community meetings and work sessions with the Board to gather input have been held. It is anticipated that the Board will vote in June of 2009 on the new student assignment plan; we are proposing that the new plan begin to be put into effect for the 2010-11 school year, beginning with grades K, 6, and 9. After the approval of the plan, as well as a new set of attendance area boundaries, we will develop a transition plan to carry forward the new student assignment plan in a phased manner.

Below you will find answers to frequently-asked questions (FAQ) about these proposals.

If you cannot find the answer to a specific question, please send us your comments. While the volume of e-mail prevents us from guaranteeing an individual response, we will post answers to new questions on our FAQ pages regularly.

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